Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Thought I'd post a great video of some London Tubes arriving and departing from various stations as I was comparing the silent JLR trains to London Underground in a resent post. No one could ever accuse Tubes of being too silent could they!

While we are on the subject of the London Underground. There are some great sites dedicated to London underground Ghost Stations.

These are all those stations that for one reason or another, London Transport management decided to close down. Most of these stations still exist, their posters unchanged, the Underground Tube wall map frozen in time at the date they were abandoned, forever waiting in vain for a train to once again stop at its platform.﻿﻿

An old map at Holborn Station's old Platform 5, abandoned 1994.

﻿﻿﻿I remember, more than 20 years ago, when I used the Central Line everyday to commute to and from work, the train would rush through a Ghost Station on its way to Tottenham (prounced "Tot-nem" for all you Americans reading) Court Road station. You could just make out through the merky darkness, the platform and its Station Name on the London Underground logo as "British Museum". I understand that today, the platform has been totally removed and only the wall tiles remain. It was all very mysterious and eerie! The station was closed in 1933, Its above ground entrance long since built over.

Some of the Ghost Stations that were abandoned before the Second World War were reopened for the duration of the Blitz to be used as Bomb shelters. Others were used as Secret War department offices.

Anyway, those interested in London Ghost Stations can visit the following sites: